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Friday, March 27, 2015

Lyle and the Groveland Hotel

This charming Bed and
Breakfast offers 17 unique rooms for guests that come to stay in the small
Sierra Nevada Mountain town of Groveland California near the entrance to
Yosemite Park.

Originally built in 1849 this
structure was an adobe trading post. It then was used as a gambling house,
saloon, hotel, Ranger Station, business offices and even a Greyhound Bus Stop.

Hotel at turn of century.

Peggy and Grover Mosley
bought this old run-down building in the 1990s. They spent two years and a
million dollars to renovate this structure.

One room in this hotel is
always in high demand. Room 15 is where Lyle resides. He is the inn’s ghost.
Peggy and her employees enjoy sharing stories about Lyle.

During California’s Gold Rush
this building was considered the finest house on the hill. So when Lyle, a
reclusive miner, struck it rich he took up residence in Room 15.

His new living arrangement
was also convenient for he worked the Spring Gulch Mine nearby. Lyle stayed in
Room 15 for years.

He was found dead in this
room in 1927, underneath him was a box of dynamite one of the tools of his
trade.

Lyle haunts Room 15 and the
area that surrounds it. He was known to be obsessively neat and tidy while
alive and it appears his ghost is the same.

Lyle's Room 15 today.

Female guests that stay in
this room find if they place their cosmetics on Lyle’s dresser he does not like
this clutter for when they return their makeup is no longer on the dresser.
They often discover their items placed on the sink instead.

One female guest even watched
as her makeup flew off the back of the dresser and landed on the floor.

Lyle’s ghost also likes to
mess with the water. Taps are often turned on when no one is around--Peggy and
Grover experienced this when they were the only two in the hotel.

Lyle also turns on the water
in shower stalls in rooms near Room 15 when no one is around.

Another prank he enjoys is
messing with the room door locks near Room 15. Guests return to find their room
keys temporarily do not work.

There is also a romantic tale
told about Lyle. Peggy states that if his ghost has not been active for a while
it means he is visiting The Hotel Charlotte across the street from the
Groveland.

While alive, Lyle had a love
affair with the original owner of this hotel--Charlotte.